Café on Park
Respecting its established, energetic, and communal presence within the city, the expansion of Café on Park enhances the restaurant's relationship with its surroundings by connecting with its venerable namesake -- Balboa Park -- through details that are about the landscape, the vistas, and the textures of the Park.
Primary architectural elements relate directly to the parkland by sharing physical and transcendental traits. The area's ubiquitous eucalyptus tree lends the pattern of its sculptural, human-like jointed limbs to the structure of tall, attenuating doors. The clustered constellation of plant life growing at the riparian edge of nearby canyons reveals itself in wall perforations at the wet bar and in the floor along pathways to outdoor terrace dining. Ceiling light fixtures on twisting, turning metal arms of variegated lengths extend and reach to create a transparent overhead canopy that casts translucent shadows across table and floor. Materials have a variety of finishes from smooth to rough for tactile richness. Punctuated skin treatments peel away from their frames like bark exfoliating from a tree.
Architectural details intersect with food and art in depth and whimsy to make for a proficient public eating and gathering place.
Krasne Residence
Settled in a canyon near the Mission Hills neighborhood of San Diego, this project is a remaking of an exterior entry courtyard at the home of pastry chef Karen Krasne. By engaging Karen's thought processes for creating new desserts, the project translates similar ideas about texture, transparency, and adjacency to create an atypical outdoor space for preparing food, greeting visitors and entertaining guests.
Entering the courtyard, planes of overlapping privacy walls create a pronounced threshold between public street space and private living area. The architecture, as with the food, is inspired by Karen's extensive travels and the influence that comes from experiencing a particular culture. Moroccan lanterns lend their hand-stamped, organically patterned perforations to a cement board screen flanking the space. The screen, in line with Karen's chef-d'oeuvre, is treated with plain vanilla yogurt to grow lichen, which is found on most things in Southern California canyons. Iridescent, milky white Century plants, semi-translucent rice paper glass and chunks of recycled tumbled Chardonnay wine bottles balance the hard edges of the concrete and metal finishes and define sculpted areas for conversation or contemplation.
By blending creative processes the materials, textures and compositions meld to create an uncommon communal gathering place.
Screen: Water Jet Process
City Dog Wash
Located at the edge of a light rail station, this new space provides pet washing facilities for a budding urban neighborhood. Defined by finely crafted metals and resins, the project embodies the lighthearted nature of the business and the community's artisan culture.
Transparencies in walls and screens are reactions to a limited operating budget requiring programmed spaces be functionally separate yet visually controlled by one employee. Water jet cut aluminum screens with over-scaled paw prints separate the washing and retail functions while maintaining sight lines. Reed grass embedded in semi-transparent resin enables light filtration, overspray control, and increased dog comfort. Bright red industrial hose reels hanging from the ceiling simplify the wash area and make reference to the trains motioning outside. Display cases raised off the floor and hung from the walls eliminate tipping dangers and remove support legs that tangle leashes. Contemporary technologies advance the capabilities of design elements enhancing the program's functionality and encouraging user interplay.
Bathrooms
Located in a renovated 1940's auto repair shop currently operating as a restaurant & lounge, these two distinct spaces invert typical gender representations in social architecture.
In the women's room a man's suit metaphorically represents "masculinity". Three primary materials -- blue resin (tie), walnut plank (pant), and white tile (shirt) -- delineate three zones for washing, waiting, and grooming. Sculptural elements soften the distinct lines of the primary materials and increase user interaction. Components include a cluster of linear magnified car mirrors at the make-up counter, flower vases (boutonniere) strapped to steel plates, and an LCD monitor linked to a camera in the men's room. The camera shows activity at the men's lavatory sink allowing women to watch the men as they groom.
In the men's room the camera stares in a constant scrutinizing gaze. The architecture emasculates by blurring privacy boundaries. Mirrors at urinals are placed at hip height and drink rails are positioned to spur interference of personal space. "Femininity" is represented with vibrant color and supple materials. Multi-colored lights shine on acrylic inserted into walls creating dramatic effects. In the stalls semi-transparent resin screens replace rigid partition walls and clustered light fixtures amplify shadows. A repeating image of the building's historical crest adds texture and pattern.
By bending usual gender representations, the spaces become a catalyst for play and conversation.
Fire Station
Placed between the County Administration Building and the County Center / Little Italy trolley stop, the ideal site for Little Italy's future fire station is an opportunity to improve the neighborhood's public services, define a Western gateway and make a forward thinking statement about energy efficiency.
The proposed building diagram solves the technical requirements of a fire station while promoting green building concepts by incorporating sustainable design principles such as building orientation, massing, material use and efficient building systems. A semi-covered vehicle courtyard allows light and ocean breezes to enter the station's three individual spaces for equipment, office and living. The separate but interlocking parts create compact forms to reduce heating and cooling needs while providing energy saving daylighting solutions. A movable louver system on the West facade shields traffic and sun exposure in the summer and transforms to allow passive heating in winter months. Eco-friendly insulated wall panels increase energy performance, ease maintenance requirements and reduce use of petroleum products such as paint and sealers. A vertical element, reminiscent of the county's rural fire towers, gestures to the County Administration Building and functions to draw heated air out of the building on warm days
Progressive design solutions and thoughtful building techniques combine to create a responsible public building that creates a substantive benefit for San Diego's citizens and the city's built environment.
Poses Yoga Studio
We initiated our design by studying the principals of yoga. Our intention was to create a space that spoke of the ritual nature of yoga functions. The program required two distinct spaces: a boutique and a studio. We added a third, interstitial threshold space to emphasize an essential element of entering a productive yoga experience-that of removing oneself from the everyday norm to clear distractions so that an internal focus can be achieved. To facilitate this 'state of mind' change, the third space became a life-size cube that one passes through to enter the studio. The volume is kept austere with simply constructed hardwood plank on four sides and stained in a calming, dark ebony hue. The transition is a pronounced and deliberate cue to prepare the user for entering and exiting the extraordinary environment.
Independent, interlocking forms relate to postures and body movement. Ephemeral appearing resin panels and slats of rigid steel float in front of utility walls held in place in a contracted state. The tautness of detail also informs the ceiling panels that hang freely unattached to the walls. The principle of balance is disclosed in the symmetry of the large collinear sliding doors, the arrangement of display racks and the location of supporting spaces. Retail and office functions lay on a secondary perpendicular axis with the building's entrance while the studio door is on a straight axis to honor the yoga act.
